Farms: How Giant Wind Farms Can Save The Planet
Productivity | Information | History | View | Quality
Offshore wind farms work like hurricane speed bumps and are a new way to kill a hurricane's power by transforming its energy into electricity. http://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/february/hurricane-winds-turbine-022614.html Subscribe to The Daily Conversation https://www.youtube.com/TheDailyConversation Facebook http://www.facebook.com/thedailyconversation Google+ https://plus.google.com/100134925804523235350/posts Twitter http://www.twitter.com/thedailyconvo According to his advanced climate-weather computer model, Stanford researcher Mark Jacobson found that installing massive offshore wind turbine farms in the path of a hurricane diminishes hurricane wind speeds by up to 92 mph and storm surge by up to 79%. The catch is that the simulation used 300 gigawatts of installed wind turbine capacity, when the biggest offshore wind farm man has built to this point is the London array at only 630 megawatts of installed capacity, nearly 500 times smaller than the one Jacobson used in the model. Plus, the London Array also cost $3 billion. So, scaling up to a wind farm the size of which was used in the study would cost hundreds of billions of dollars. But think of the different problems this could simultaneously eliminate. Hurricane Sandy caused over $80 billion in damages as did Katrina, which basically wiped out New Orleans. With climate change making these storms more intense and more frequent, one idea to protect cities has been the construction of giant sea walls at a cost ranging from $10-30 billion per city. But a giant wind farm could protect entire coastlines, while paying for itself through the energy it produces and CO2 emissions if reduces. A 300 GW array-like the one in the study would create enough electricity to power around 100,000,000 homes. If building one of these mega farms in the gulf coast could simultaneously stop the threat of hurricanes in the region and provide the power for a large portion of the country in a clean, renewable way, why would we not take a hard look at this? If we're going to solve these big, 21st-century problems, we need to start thinking boldly. We should build off Mark Jacobson's study with a much more in-depth examination to both confirm these findings and to make sure that stopping hurricanes wouldn't have unintended negative consequences on the ecosystem more broadly. But if the data continues to look as good as it does right now, I say we go for it and construct two, 300 GW arrays: one in the Gulf of Mexico and one off the Eastern Seaboard. Video clips: Stanford simulations http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7uRtxl8j2U#t=17 London Array http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra6sogF4lLE Hurricane Katrina timelapse http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1ONNM_73-8 Hurricane Sandy: As It Happened http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeaG1jRLIBw Dawlish Sea Wall http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JbSNASjiPk Renewable energy from offshore wind http://en.savefrom.net/#url=http://youtube.com/watch?v=tPOivsKavQo&utm_source=youtube.com&utm_medium=short_domains&utm_campaign=www.ssyoutube.com Images: Katrina http://commons.trincoll.edu/edreform/2012/05/was-hurricane-katrina-good-for-the-education-of-students-in-new-orleans/ http://mnpprodpublic.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/040413_Katrina-Aid_16x9.jpg
Comments
-
Go to ShepherdSurvives webpage if you'd like to know more about surviving. Good solutions for everyone I think.
-
I worked building nuclear power plants, coal, oil, natural gas and biomass thermal facilities. I am really excited about using wind as a power source. The United States has huge areas that are well suited for these plants.
-
Well we have so much iron available on earth it's ridiculous. If we want to we can make anything of steel provided it's something worthwhile. So investing steel production now into electricity production later.. you eventually can make more, and more and more wind turbines. Put them everywhere you can!
-
What about when there is no hurricane? Hydroelectric and nuclear are both affordable ways to generate electricity, and they are also consistent ways to generate electricity.
-
I think the idea is intriguing. I am curious if the global weather patterns would be severely disrupted if it were implemented.
Some amount of offshore wind farms seem great! You could even attach some form of wave turbine below them.
Safety concerns would be quite a conundrum. Generating electricity in salt water could be done safely, however if some isolating equipment breaks, the fish and others could be in trouble. -
"Save The Planet" by ultimately industrializing millions of acres? Yeah, that sounds Green. This whole concept is ridiculous anyhow. Those turbines would probably get decimated by a hurricane approaching, and I'm sure they zone for that in the first place. That's the same Stanford study that would like to see nearly 4 million turbines spiking the planet. Can anyone who respects natural vistas really be for such a scheme? These are engineers who want to manipulate every bloody thing they see and leave a handful of nature zoos for the rich to vacation in.
-
I like this guy. Let's save the world
-
I like the idea, but there are a few things that concern me such as that there could be more prolonged droughts as the Hurricanes could help end periods of prolonged droughts and also cool the atmosphere in hot areas like the Mississipi coast and Florida. Don't get me wrong, It would hugely benefit plant life and property, especially from storm surge.
I would be just worried that the rainwater from the hurricanes that may have benefits may not be there if they're dissipated, but if they make landfall as a tropical storm then I'm more positive that the U.S coast will still have sufficient rainfall without winds damaging property and without the deadly storm surge.
-
Many scenic areas are now industrial parks, with these giant towers looming over the landscape. The question is, why have so many "green" zombies sold out to these invasive machines? It really puzzles me.
-
ye wind farms kill the look of country side across the world to
-
This could be awesome build these for the USA but what about the Caribbean?
-
That is....a great idea. I hope someone implements it. The only thing not mentioned is what the effects will be on the wildlife (such as birds migrating). We have these same wind generators here on Maui and one such side effect is they do kill lots of birds....but then again so does pollution.
-
And that is the poison pill of capitalism folks. While such a farm would have tons of long term benefits. There are many that are making money from the way things are now. From Big Oil/Coal/Natural gas that sell fuel to power plants. To construction companies that profit from rebuilding ruined houses. To the goods and services industries that profit by drumming up fear of power lost and lack of open stores due to storm damage. And all would fight this project tooth and nail.
It's a nice thought but the generation that would have taken on this challenge is in nursing homes. -
nice
-
that cant be just good thing. there will be cons to...
-
Because big oil.. that's why
-
"which basically wiped out new orleans" hahaha nooooo... it didnt.
-
donald trump's head exploaded.
-
Seems self obvious, but modeling is great proof. The answer is: sure, if someone can make a buck from doing it. That's all that matters. All that is needed to get things done. Otherwise THEY DON'T CARE if hurricanes are a threat. They live in homes or bunkers that make it a non-issue.
-
Sounds good, but can the United States build it?